A mother struggling to communicate with her teenager

Jane listed with a heavy heart to the familiar thud thud thud of the sound of her son’s angry stomp up the stairs after another fruitless attempt at communication that had been a number of sighs, angry feelings on her part and harsh-toned words that had been meant more kindly than they had come out of her mouth sounding. Yet as per usual, it had been met by a series of shrugs, grunts and unintelligible mumbling.

If only she thought not for the first time there was a “Mumbles & Grunts to English Dictionary”.

Every household with a teenager would have one. Bestselling book year after year. After all, they had a Klingon to English dictionary.

Her nerves were wearing thin as was her carpet due to the heavy-footed stomping and oh wait for it the slamming of the bedroom door. Thank goodness builders knew how to build. Maybe she wondered if they made houses across the world with both earthquake tolerance and a teenage tantrum tolerance.

She heard a jingle on TV. That damn earworm again.

She signed she doubted it might work but heck someone won the lottery every week and you had to be in it to win it. So she went upstairs in his wake. Opened the pack of cards she’d bought recently and slipped them under his door.

Two hours later whilst in a daydream whilst washing up Jane turns around and sees in the middle of the countertop one card that says “I feel so frustrated”